Campaign urges unmarried women to vote

A national organization called Women's Voices Women Vote has launched a voter registration campaign to try and get unmarried women, who constitute a growing proportion of the U.S. population, to register and vote this election.

According to the U.S. Census, 46 percent of all voting-age women are unmarried and 55 percent of all women not registered to vote are unmarried. Fifteen million unmarried women were not registered to vote in 2004, and nearly 20 million unmarried women did not cast ballots on Election Day.

The campaign, called "You Count. Be Counted," includes a large mail-in registration drive launched in August and targeting approximately 7 million unmarried women in 24 states. The drive is being run by the national organization Women's Voices Women Vote, which expects to register close to 1 million women nationwide between now and the general election.

According to the most recent census data, unmarried women women who are single, separated, divorced or widowed make up a growing percent of the population. Approximately 26 percent of eligible voters are unmarried women, or 53 million people.

"For the first time in history, unmarried women are equal in number to married women, yet they register and vote less," said Page Gardner, president of Women's Voices Women Vote. "Although single women are the fastest growing large group in our country they remain underrepresented in our democracy," Gardner said.

Unmarried women are 9 percentage points less likely to be registered than married women, and those who are registered are 13 percentage points less likely to actually vote.

According to the campaign organizers, between Aug. 8 and 15, registration forms should have arrived at the homes of women in Arkansas, Illinois Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia. Between Aug. 26 and Sept. 2, the mailings were to arrive in Colorado, Nevada, and Washington. Between Sept. 12 and 19, the mailing were to arrive in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

For an interactive map containing state-specific information, and more information on this registration drive, visit www.wvwv.org.

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wildbill
08-25-08 4:34 PM »Report Abuse	Why just unmarried women? Why doesn't this organization just encourage everyone to vote?

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